Copenhagen cartoons a-go-go

Day 9 (Dec 15) update

It’s below as a jpg, and below that there’s a) the text and b) a fantastic set of questions that the Conference SHOULD be tackling, and would be if this species gave the smallest shit about itself and its survival…

End game in the End Times
So, here come the ministers/prime ministers/presidents and other assorted riff-raff. Their underlings and understudies have been haggling for ten days. Now, between the Tuesday night welcoming ceremony and Friday evening (Saturday morning?) they’re supposed to finalise a deal that they can sign. Except nobody, not even Yvo de Boer, the head of the UNFCCC, seems particularly optimistic. UN top bod Ban-Ki Moon says “”If everything is left to leaders to resolve at the last minute, we risk having a weak deal or no deal at all,”” And you know you’re in trouble when it is left to some unelected never-had-a-proper-job-in-his-life aristocrat to state the emittingly obvious. “As our planet’s life-support system begins to fail and our very survival as a species is brought into question, remember that our children and grandchildren will ask not what our generation said, but what it did. Let us give an answer, then, of which we can be proud.” Quite.

UNFCCC KP CDM CCS DOA, NFR?
Carbon capture and storage at coal-fired power plants won’t be counted in the Clean Development Mechanism this year. A committee under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has discussed the issue, but delayed any decisions for future summits (Mexico 2010, South Africa 2011). USA and UK are the chief advocates of the emerging technology. However, some other countries have concerns over “the long-term liability for the storage site, including liability for any seepage”, the text displays.

Legal schmeagle
Talks on emission pledges by developing countries, made little progress. A senior source told the BBC that the main stumbling block was US insistence that commitments should be legally binding. China in particular is adamant that such plans must be voluntary and that emission curbs should not be subject to international verification – something that many members of the US Senate are said to regard as key if they are to back any agreement here. (BBC) Meanwhile, Small Island States reduce their demands to a target of 15-30% below 1990 levels by 2020.

Reasons NOT to be “cheerful”

New figures from the US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration indicate that, under current policies, the US would still be dependent upon fossil fuels for 78 per cent of its energy needs by 2035. Assuming no changes in existing policies, the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions would also rise from 5,814 million metric tonness in 2008 to 6,320 million metric tonnes in 2035. (Greenbang)

REDI or not
U.S. Energy Secretary and brainiac Steven Chu launches Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative (Climate REDI), under the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate(the outfit Dubya started as a spoiler to the UNFCCC, but has now been cleverly assimilated). It will “ accelerate the deployment of renewable energy and energy-efficiency technologies in developing countries.” It includes three new clean energy technology programs, will budget $350 million over five years, with pledges from the U.S., Italy, Australia, UK, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and other partners.

Protest News
Today is “Reclaim Power” day, with talk of taking over the convention centre for a “People’s Assembly”

Quotable Quotes
“I am not anticipating any change in the [US] mitigation commitment,” US chief delegate Todd Stern
“In these very hours we are balancing between success and failure. Success is within reach. But I must also warn you: we can fail.” Connie Hedegaard, presicent of the conference and soon-to-be EU Climate commissioner.
“The delegations from those countries may say something different in their press briefings, but I can tell you that in the negotiations they state very clearly that the Kyoto Protocol will not continue beyond 2012,” u Qingtai, China’s special representative for climate change”
“It seems negotiators are living in the Matrix, while the real negotiation is taking place in the ‘Green room,’ in small stealth dinners with selective guests… It seems the only ones who have taken the “red pill” and are aware of the reality are those who marched in the streets on Saturday, who have denounced the rich countries for trying to stitch a deal that will undermine their obligation to tackle this urgent climate crisis.” Bolivian Ambassador to the UN.

How to conserve remaining oil supplies and to best use what’s left to speed a transition to a post-fossil fuel society, and to commit to leaving newly discovered oil in the ground

How to invest in re-educating the masses worldwide in sustainable farming practices appropriate for their own climate and soil type

How to invest in re-educating the masses in all the other activities crucial for our existence (like localised clothing manufacturing, passive solar buildings, etc.)

How to shape policies to incentivise a resurgence in small scale polycultures (and how to accommodate the above through a staged and bloodless land redistribution)

How to shift funds from the present subsidising of large profit based corporations into financing small research centres in different microclimates to improve systems in all the subjects above, for the public good

How to carefully stage the above steps so our present vulnerable, globalised system doesn’t experience wholesale collapse during the transition, with its associated famine, disease and war, etc. The emphasis here needs to be on broad spectrum education